{"id":51517,"date":"2025-11-13T14:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T19:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/?post_type=news&p=51517"},"modified":"2025-11-13T14:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T19:07:08","slug":"ai-atoms-and-ambition","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/ai-atoms-and-ambition\/","title":{"rendered":"AI, Atoms, and Ambition"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Sabrina Shen (Engr \u201819) and Sam Walton Norwood (Engr \u201819, MSE \u201820) started their first years at Johns Hopkins, neither thought they\u2019d end up in the\u00a0<\/span>Department of Materials Science and Engineering<\/span><\/a>. Now graduates of the program, they\u2019ve started careers at \u00a0<\/span>Mirror Physics<\/span><\/a>, a New York-based startup co-founded by Norwood, focusing on the emerging field of AI in materials science and chemistry.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI started in the\u00a0<\/span>Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering<\/span><\/a>\u00a0because I was initially interested in making new medicines,\u201d says Norwood. \u201cI added materials science as a second major because I found the concepts interesting and could gear my chemistry knowledge towards creating new materials instead of medicines.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Shen also joined materials science and engineering in her sophomore year, making the switch from sociology. \u201cI fell in love with the field and found it as a way to learn about the world around me; materials make up everything, so I found their study to be an insightful lens for understanding and interacting with the world,\u201d she says. She met Norwood that year, befriending him along with other students in their graduating class.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Norwood\u2019s interest in computational materials science and AI started while he was a student at Hopkins and carried into his postgraduate studies.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy senior project focused on computational simulation of materials for energy storage, which I carried into my master\u2019s at Hopkins,\u201d says Norwood. \u201cIn my post-graduate research, I applied large-scale deep learning to computational materials science and chemistry, some of the first serious considerations of\u00a0how modern deep learning could be applied in those fields.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Deep learning is the modern way of developing AI that has led to breakthroughs such as ChatGPT. Unlike\u00a0older machine learning methods\u2014which rely on manually engineered features and structured data sets\u2014deep learning uses highly flexible models and computing capable of learning complex patterns from unstructured data. For materials science purposes, these models can process terabytes of data to learn the underlying physical relationships governing material behavior, helping scientists predict how materials function under certain conditions and accelerating the discovery of new materials.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt there was a unique opportunity to build a company around AI for materials science and chemistry researchers, whether in academia or industry,\u201d says Norwood. \u201cSo, I teamed up with two of my closest friends \u2013 Kayvon Tabrizi, a fellow alumnus from the\u00a0<\/span>Whiting School of Engineering<\/span><\/a>, and Kevin Lee, whom I\u2019ve known since high school, and founded Mirror Physics.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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Sabrina and Sam visit the Artificial Intelligence for Materials Design (AIMD) Lab with Professor Todd Hufnagel<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Shen\u2019s curiosity about AI grew during her doctoral studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After gaining more experience with AI for materials science, she joined the team as soon as she finished her PhD. \u201cMy thesis focused on the design of bio-based materials for sustainability. The lab I joined sat at the intersection of experimental and computational approaches, which continue to influence my approach to AI for science,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While she was earning her PhD, she attended the 2024 Materials Research Society (MRS) Spring Meeting and Exhibit in Seattle, Washington, where she reconnected with Norwood. They kept in touch until the next year, after Mirror Physics was founded, and met to discuss the future of the company.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI<\/span>t was the right people and the right opportunity at the right time\u2014what Mirror Physics needed most in its early stages was agile team members with strong technical backgrounds and well-connected networks, and I was excited to apply both materials and interdisciplinary expertise towards building something with revolutionary potential in the sciences,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since its founding in 2024, Mirror Physics has aimed to design systems to accelerate research and development, predicting outcomes in materials science and chemistry.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Our goal is to create a frontier AI for materials science and chemistry, and to make it accessible to all scientists so that we can drive innovation in sustainability, health care, and other sectors,<\/span>\u201d says Shen.\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span>We\u2019re currently building several tools, including foundation models for chemical simulation and a self-driving lab, which is a lab that completes experiments using AI and machine learning.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sabrina and Sam visit the Stieff Silver Building with Professor Orla Wilson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Starting a new company comes with a unique set of challenges, as each day presents new opportunities, specifically in the AI field.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAI for scientific discovery is a big, nebulous space right now. We know there are a lot of opportunities and excitement,\u201d says Shen. \u201cA startup employee must be flexible and see the big picture of where\u00a0<\/span>the company can go \u2013 there\u2019s a huge emphasis on adapting to the market, while paying attention to opportunities on the horizon.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Their time at Johns Hopkins laid the foundation for the skills they have today. They credit their professors, specifically Associate Teaching Professor\u00a0<\/span>Orla Wilson<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and Professor\u00a0<\/span>Hai-Quan Mao<\/span><\/a>, who played\u00a0<\/span>pivotal roles in shaping their minds and influencing their career paths.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur professors taught us the importance of lifetime learning, of always challenging ourselves and staying curious, and granted us a lot of intellectual freedom to figure out challenging problems,\u201d says Norwood. \u201cSeeking out opportunities and thinking independently are some of the greatest lessons I learned at Hopkins that have benefited me most in my career.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published by the Department of Materials Science & Engineering<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-51517","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","news_categories-alumni"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAI, Atoms, and Ambition - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/ai-atoms-and-ambition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AI, Atoms, and Ambition - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Sabrina Shen (Engr \u201819) and Sam Walton Norwood (Engr \u201819, MSE \u201820) started their first years at Johns Hopkins, neither thought they\u2019d end up in the\u00a0Department of Materials Science…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/ai-atoms-and-ambition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-13T19:07:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"AI, Atoms, and Ambition - 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